Michael A. Pechura

A time-sharing system may be extended into a general-purpose distributed computing facility through the use of remote microcomputer systems. In such an extension the microcomputer system is not merely a remote terminal but a complete computer system. It becomes part of an integrated network of computers, each with significant local computational power with access to host system data resources. The implementation described emphasizes ease-of-use by minimizing any differences between local and remote data use.